Gravity

Trail 29" HT

Trail 27.5" HT

Road: Endurance

Freerange

ROAD: RACE

ZONE ONE

Highlighted by a custom-designed sub 1000-gram Kona Carbon Race monocoque frame and fork that’s light and speedy, the Zone One comes loaded with a host of innovative features that make it an incredibly versatile and value-oriented carbon fiber road bike. It has features like a press fit BB30 bottom bracket, compact 50-34 gearing, large tire and full fender capability, and a tubeless wheelset, as well as geometry and structure that enables the rider on everything from gravel roads to Fondos, and every single hammerfest in between. Ride forever; always fast, in the Zone.

TECHNOLOGY

ROAD: RACE

Our road race line continues to expand and address specific needs for all types of road riders and racers. From the subtle details that enable winter training to the effective power transfer that makes your bike fly, and for young riders on a budget and those looking for a podium-catching high-performance carbon speedster. The Zones are designed as year-round, all-road surface race bikes, featuring comfortable angles for long, rough road races, and more clearance for larger 25-28c tires to help get you through your version of Paris-Roubaix, while still performing like a pro peloton race rocket. It's time to go fast!

WHEN DO WE CHOOSE CARBON?

The first step in the design phase is ensuring how carbon fiber can be optimized for its intended use. An increasingly refined and tested material, carbon fiber is the ideal choice when it comes to creating light, tough, playful bikes. While we’re selective when choosing carbon fiber for a given application, for certain models it provides that perfect balance of weight, strength, frame damping, stiffness, compliancy and durability.

DESIGNING THE KONA RIDE

It’s imperative that key elements of the Kona Ride come to life in our carbon bikes. Like with all of our designs, it is efficiency, agility, comfort, and overall strength that are key considerations. We work to leverage all the inherent properties of the material, which are markedly different than steel or aluminum. For our designers it’s crucial that our carbon bikes still feel, ride and last like a Kona.

SMART FABRICATION

THE WEAVE: Kona Carbon bikes use TORAY fibers, the most technologically advanced in the industry. Toray is the same weave used in Formula 1 cars. Our entire structure is built with unidirectional prepreg carbon fiber underneath a UD frame finish. The result is frames with industry-leading weight, stiffness and durability.

THE FRAME: Kona Carbon frames are built with a monocoque main triangle that allows continuous fibers at tube junctures, resulting in a stronger, lighter overall structure. Our production process also eliminates as much bonded-in aluminum inserts as possible. Kona Carbon frames are only molded with internal air bags, which are removed after the molding process.

TORTUROUS TESTING

During the prototyping process, our frames are tested on veritable bike torture machines that push our designs through tens of thousands of test hours. What we learn from this directly translates into making stronger frames, while eliminating unnecessary material. Kona Team athletes are next on the beat down list, but even after they’ve had a rigorous go, our product team steps on to abuse the same prototypes, day-in and day-out, usually through a cold and wet Washington winter.

COMPACT REAR TRIANGLE

Short chainstays and seatstays provide a perfect balance of stability and power transfer when out of the saddle and pedaling hard. Shorter seatstays also have less deflection during braking and accelerate faster than longer stays. A more compact rear triangle also helps the bike to negotiate tight-twisting sections of trail. The Honzo, Operator and Process 111 are good examples of 2015 bikes with incredibly compact rear triangles: quick, aggressive in corners, easy to maneuver and laterally stiff.

TAPERED HEADTUBE

Aside from improving the aesthetic, due to its cleaner lines and smooth transition between the fork crown and the headset cover, tapered headtubes also offer a more solid interface between forks with tapered steertubes and the bicycle frame itself, thanks to more weld contact area. More girth at the bottom of the headtube better distributes shock force, prolonging the bearing life of the headset itself, eliminates brake shudder, all while providing positive steering performance. The inherent strength of its triangular design also means a stronger steering position and improved balance, giving the rider more control in rough terrain. A zero-stack, tapered headtube also puts strength where the load is going—into the lower headset cup—maximizing bearing durability where it’s needed.

INTEGRATED HEADSET

Integrated headsets are simple, light and effective headset systems whereby the bearing race cups are actually part of the headtube, be they machined away and left with the headtube, or glued in (carbon) or welded in with steel or alloy. Like an internal headset, an integrated headset also reduces stack height, so the height of the stem and bars are more adjustable, giving the rider the best fit possible. Providing effective, precise steering, you’ll find integrated headsets on our collection of Road Endurance and Race bikes like the Zones and Esattos.